The impact of employer branding on employees: The role of employment offering in the prediction of their affective commitment

Hanin, Dorothée [UCL] Stinglhamber, Florence [UCL] Delobbe, Nathalie [UCL]

Most studies dedicated to the examination of employer branding in industrial/organisational psychology investigated it using samples of applicants. The objective of the present research was to study the influence of the employer branding of a company on its employees’ attitudes. More precisely, we examined the interactive effect of the employment offering as portrayed by organisational communications and the employment experience as lived by employees on their affective commitment (AC). Furthermore, we analysed the mechanisms underlying these relationships, i.e. perceived organisational support (POS) and psychological contract violation (PCV). One-hundred eighty-six department managers of a large multinational retailing company involved in employer branding practices were surveyed. Results indicated that employment offering and lived employment experience interact in the prediction of both POS and PCV and this interactive effect carries over to AC. Implications of these findings for both researchers and practitioners are discussed.